PAPER - 1 : The Renaissance Literature

TOPIC: historical and biographical approach of hamlet.

PAPER: 1, the renaissance literature.

NAME: chudasama pratipalsinh v

CLASS: m.a SEM -1

SUBMITTED TO: Dr.Dilip Barad sir

Dept, of English,

Bhavnagar University

Historical and biographical approaches of 

                            hamlet                           

 Hamlet is considered by some commentators to be topical and autobiographical in certain places. In a view of Queen Elizabeth’s advanced age and poor health-hence the precarious state of the succession to the British crown-Shakespeare’s decision to mount a production of hamlet, with its usurped throne and internally disordered state, come as no surprise. There is some ground for thinking that Ophelia’s famous  characterizations of Hamlet may be intended to suggest the earl of Essex formally Elizabeth’s favorite who had incurred her severe displeasure and been tried for treason and executed.

            The courtier’s, soldier, scholar,’ eye ,tongue sword
            The expectancy and rose of the fair state.
            The glass of fashion and the mould of form,
            The observed of all observed…….

Also something of Essex may be seen in Claudius’s observation Hamlet’s madness and his popularity with the masses.                  How dangerous it is that is man goes loose!
            You must we not put the strong law  on him.
            He’s loved of the distracted multitude.
            Who like not in their judgment but their eyes.
            And where ’tis so, the offender’s scourge is weighed.
            But never the offence.

Yet another contemporary historical figure, the lord treasure, Burghley, has been seen by some in the character of Polonius. Shakespeare may have heard his patron the Young Henry wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, contempt for Elizabeth’s old lord treasure; indeed this was the many of the gallants of the southmapton’s generation felt. Burghley  possed most of the shortcoming Shakespeare gave to polonius.he was boring,meddling and given to wise old adages and truisms.moreover he had an elaborate spy system that kept him informed about both friend and foe.one is reminded of polonious’s assigning Reynaldo to spy on laertes in paris.this side of burghley’s character was so wellknown that it might have been dangerous for Shakespeare to portray it on stage while the old man was alive.

       Other topical references include Shakespeare’s opinion about the revival of the private theater,which would employ children and which would   constitute a rival for the adult companies of the public theater, for which Shakespeare wrote.it is also reasonable to assume that hamlet’s instructions to the players. Contain Shakespeare’s satire on dull people who profess preferences for rigidly classified genres. Scholars have also pointed out Shakespeare’s treatment of other stock characters of the day osric,the Elizabethan dandy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, the boot-licking courtiers;laertes and fortinbras,the men of action;horatio,the “true roman “friend ;and Ophelia, the courtly love heroine.

       In looking at hamlet the historical critic might be expected to ask, “What do we need to know about eleventh-century Danish court life or about Elizabethan England to understand this play?”similar questions are more less relevant to the traditional interpretive approach to any literary work,but they are particularly germane to analysis of hamlet.for one thing,most contemporary American students,largely unacquainted with the convention,le alone the subtleties,of monarchical succession wonder why hamlet does not automatically succeed to the throne after the death of his father.

       Shakespeare intended his audiences to think of the entire situation-character, customs, and plot-as English which he apparently did in most of this plays,even though they wear set in other courtries.wilson’s theory is based upon the assumption that ah Elizabethan audience could have but little interest in the peculiarities of Danish government,whereas the problems of royal succession, usurpation,and potential revolution in a contemporary English context would be of paramount concern. He thus asserts that Shakespeare’s audience conceived hamlet to be the lawful heir to his father and Claudius to be a usurper and the usurpation to be one oe the main factorsto in the play, important to both hamlet and Claudius.wherther one accepts wilson’s theory or not,it is certain that hamlet thought of Claudius as a usurper,for he describes him to Gertrude as:

            A cutpurse of the empire and the rule
            That from a shelf the precious diadem stole
            And put it in his poceket!

And to horatio as one

            That hath killed my king and whored my mother,
             Popped in between th’election and my hopes….

        

Modern students are also likely to be confused by the charge of inset against the queen.although her second marriage to the brother of her deceased husband would not be considered incestuous today by many civil and religioys codes,it was so considered in shakespeare’s day.some dispensation or legal loophole must have accounted for the popular acceptance of gertrude’s marriage to Claudius.that hamlet considered the union incestuous,however,cannot be emphasized too much for it is this repugnant character of Gertrude’s sin perhaps more than any other factor,that plunges hamlet into the melancholy of which he is victim.

And hear it is necessary to know what”melancholy””Elizabethans and to what extent it is important in understanding the play.a.c.bradley tells us that it meant to Elizabethans a condition of the mind  characterized y nervous instability rapid and extreme changes of feeling and mood and the disposition to be for the time absorbed in a dominant feeling or mood whether joys or depressed. If hamlet’s actions and speeches are examined closely, they seem to indicate symptoms of this disease. He is by turns cynical, idealistic, hyperactive, letharic ,averse to evil,disgusted at his uncle’s drunkenness and his mother’s sensuality, and the other superficially irreconcilable features in his condct, readers need to realize that at least part of hamlet’s problem is that he is a victim of extreme melancholy.

       One reason for the popularity of hamlet with Elizabethan audiences was that it dealt with a theme they wear familiar with and fascinated by revenge.hamlet is n the grand tradition of revenge tragedies and contains virtually every stock device observable n vastly inferior plays of this type.thomas kyd’s Spanish tragedy was the firest successful English adaptation of the Latin tragedies of Seneca. The typical revenge tragedy began with a crim contined with an injunction by some agent to the next of kin to avenge the crme:grew complicated by various impediments to the revenge,sch as identifying the criminal and hitting upon the proper time,placeand mode of revenge; and concluded with the death of the criminal, the avenger and frequently all the principals n the drama.laertes world risk his own soul and his body and would risk his own sol a horrifying illustration of the measure of his hatred.claudis’s rejoinder

                        No place indeed should murder sanctuarize;
                        Revenge should have no bounds

Indicates the desperate state of the king’s soul. he is condoning murder in a church,traditionally a haven of refuge, protection and legal immunity for murderers.